Design – Construction

We would like to show you how a Pilen is built and tell you about some especially important parts

The reason why, is because we are proud of our small factory and our assembly process. It is easy to hide behind extravagant web pages and brochures to introduce a product where the quality and the production circumstances do not matter. We do not want to do this and we do not believe in this way of doing business.The accuracy and care we lavish on each bike during the production process is the ground for the quality and is therefore important.

Base the frames measurements, tubes, fork and riding style on own experiments and well-tried experience.

Use quality parts from prominent manufactures – and if possible tested by SMP (Sweden) or DIN (Germany).

Use stainless steel or alloy when you can procure it.

Minimize the costs of marketing. Spend more money on the product and the assembly line.

It took us a long time when we carefully designed Pilen. We have tested and analyzed different frames. We have welded a countless amount of bicycles, tested parts from different manufactures and ridden the bike mile after mile to finally find the perfect product.

All work is done in our factory, except the welding of the frames and forks. The powder coating is carried out by our neighbour Legolack AB. The Pilen Logo type on the carrier is, of course, hand painted by us.

Production movie

Five times strong Fork

The fork has been tested by SMP, Svensk maskinprovning, according to prEN14764. To be approved, 100.000 Cykler is demanded, which means strains without complaints. Our fork passed 100.000 Cykler . After our demand SMP let the testing machinery run and after one days work they finally switched it of. Then it had passed 500.000 Cykler without any damage.

Sand Blasting and Straightening

The frames and forks are sand blasted in our sand blasting machine before they are rolled on a vehicle to our neighbours, the coating business. It is an important moment to make the painting powder fix and minimize the risk for damages and rust. After sandblasting the frame is quality controlled once again to check that they are exact straight and within our tolerance level.

Powder Painting

All frame details are painted at our neighbour company, Legolack. This reduces the transports and is a benefit for both environment and our customers. We only use powder coating and no traditional solvent based wet painting that contributes environmental destruction. Powder painting has many good qualities:

Good for the Nature

Very long durability

Resistant to wear

Resistent to Chemicals

High resistant surface

The Strongest Wheel on the Market?

The wheel is a fantastic invention. It has been known by mankind for over 4.500 years. When you think of a broken bike, how does it look? Crooked wheels, rusty rims, broken spokes and a flat tyre? The wheel is the part of the bike that is the most heavily loaded component. It must withstand a lot!

We are proud of our wheels. The rims – made of double bottomed alloy with dimpled spoke holes are a wonder in themselves and are especially made for us only. Dimpled spoke holes means that the spoke holes are punched at an angle so that the spoke will not be bent at spoke nut. With our extra strong spokes in stainless steel, high quality hubs, puncture protected tyres and the care during assembly, we can offer you the best wheels on the market for urban bikes.

How we assemble the wheels:

The lacing machine is spins the spoke and nut.

The truing machine punches the spokes and balances the wheel.

Tyres are mounted by hand and checked carefully for fit on the rim.

We use hubs from SRAM and Shimano. The gears are built in the hub to minimize the support. The front brake is a drum brake with a dynamo hub. The tires are Schwalbe City cruiser Puncture protection.

Assembling

All assembling is done by hand. The parts we use are made of stainless steel or alloy. If we can not find these parts on the market, we use steel dipped in Zink and then powder coated.